Posted on 12/22/2005 10:49:03 AM PST by aculeus
A man who was caught on CCTV repeatedly driving his car over a cat has been spared jail.
Barry Haggerty, a 58-year-old chartered surveyor from Buckinghamshire, claimed he ran over the cat 11 times because he wanted to put it out of its misery.
Haggerty was heading for work when he ran over Mixey the cat on April 12. He returned to the scene and drove forwards and backwards over the animals as it thrashed around in pain, eventually killing it.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and was sentenced by Milton Keynes Magistrates to a period of imprisonment of six weeks, suspended for 52 weeks. He was also ordered to do 60 hours' community service and to pay the prosecution costs of £4,182.
Dean Price, the defence solicitor, said Haggerty was "an animal lover" who was trying to put the cat out of its misery and had reacted with "horror and remorse" when he was shown CCTV footage of what he had done.
He told police he thought he had killed the cat outright when he first hit it but he returned and ran it over a further 10 times just to be sure.
The four-minute CCTV footage showed Haggerty's silver Renault Clio drive forwards and backwards over the one-year-old tortoiseshell female 10 times over a two-and-a-half-minute period.
The cat could clearly be seen thrashing its legs and tail in agony. Haggerty is seen to get out of his car at one stage to assess the state of the cat.
"I feel really awful," Haggerty said. "My only thoughts were how can I stop this animal suffering. The only thing I had was the car. I thought I was acting in the best interests of the cat."
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His defense was:
wait for it...
"It's Bush's fault!"
Didn't the car have a tire iron? Or was he just too much of a wuss to do the needful? Horrible to have to, of course.
I didn't realize that he'd climbed up into my Explorer and accidentally killed him when I started the engine.
I'd like to take whoever dumped him off and run them through a jet engine to see how they like it.
Translation: He had left his torture kit home that day.
I was driving to work one morning and a deer was in the middle of a 3 lane road. He was obviously in pain and you can see this huge plume of steam coming from his notrils as he was fighting for each breath. I felt bad for the poor thing but I was already running late and it would have taken more than 11 times with my explorer.
He was in a no-win position. I just pray I am never faced with a similar scenario...
Thanks for the audio... ROTFLOL & crying
: )
I do feel bad for the guy...he is either a very caring guy and had the cats interests in mind or he is a sadistic weirdo who feeds of ruthless animal cruelty. I think a quick investigation would have found this man was just trying to do what he thought was right and had no ill intent.
It's a CAT, for crying out loud! Some people eat them!
Based on teh punishment, I don't think the judge bought his story. BTW, love my cat but I don't think people should be imprisoned for harming animals, especially if it was an accident.
It was just a cat. I mean it wasn't a dog or anything.
I agree with you....how horrible. And the people in her who think it's funny....well....I'll keep those thoughts to myself.
"The cat could clearly be seen thrashing its legs and tail in agony."
First, the word "agony" implies pain, something that can only relate to human consciousness. Second, the thrashing could also have been the equivalent of a beheaded chicken running around - something I saw quite a bit of as a child at my grandparents farm.
Some people eat people...and fetuses....what's your point?
If that was his real intention, he would have used something he could aim with. Just whacking the cat on the head with a heavy object would have ended the suffering instantly. Stomping the head with a foot would also work, if no heavy object was available? By the time he'd run over the cat several times, and it was still thrashing, he had to have known that plan wasn't working.
bah. guys an idiot. you don't run over an animal 11 times to make sure its dead. its a cat. if you're that worried, a tire iron, a knife, a rock, or even your boot heel will do it much more quickly and humanely than running it over.
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